1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a strobe device, and more particularly to a strobe device which radiates supplementary light onto a subject when photographing and generates preparatory light in order to set an amount of actual light to be generated.
2. Related Art Statement
Generally, when natural light alone is insufficient to provide the amount of light needed for photographing with an image pickup device such as a camera, a strobe device is for instance used to provide supplementary light. In this type of strobe device, the actual amount of light to be generated during exposure is set after first generating preparatory light, thereby ensuring that an appropriate amount of light is generated when photographing. When controlling the amount of generated light in this way, for instance, a controller such as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 3-126383, which comprises a special-purpose photoreceptor for controlling the amount of light generated, is provided within the strobe device.
Furthermore, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-119337 discloses an electronic camera system wherein no special-purpose photoreceptor or controller are provided, the amount of light generated being set based on an integrated output.
However, according to the method of preparatory light generation disclosed in the abovementioned Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-119337 and such like, the amount of light to be actually generated is determined based on information obtained only by a single generation of preparatory light. Consequently, not only is there a disadvantage that a sufficient amount of light cannot be obtained when radiating onto a subject at long range, but also there is a disadvantage that a subject at close range is exposed to too much light. Thus it has been difficult to obtain an appropriate amount of light.